John Nesbitt

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JOHN NESBITT
About 1079 Robert Guiscard had sent from Salerno Roger’s brother,
Raoul, to Constantinople to inform Emperor Nikephoros III that he was
aggrieved by the emperor’s usurpation of power and his decision to disallow
the marriage of his predecessor’s son, Constantine Doukas, to Robert’s
daughter, Helena. Robert hoped to use this situation as an excuse for war.
When Raoul rejoined Guiscard’s court, this time at Brindisi, where the
duke of Apulia and Calabria was assembling an invasion force, he informed
his master that Alexios Komnenos had assumed the imperial mantle and
had elected to grant Constantine Doukas a share in the empire’s governance.
Hence Guiscard had no legal basis for attacking Byzantium. At this
juncture Raoul’s brother, Roger, decided to leave Brindisi and to betray
Robert’s pre-emptive strike against Byzantine territory to imperial authorities.We
next hear of Roger some fifteen years later. In 1096 Alexios Komnenos
sent Roger and Rudolfus Pel-de-Leu to negotiate with Godfrey
of Bouillon, duke of Lower Lorraine, regarding the passage of crusaders
through Byzantine lands and their conduct 4 . In 1108, Alexios consulted
with Roger, the sebastos Marinos of Naples and Peter of Aulps, regarding a
plan to sow dissension among Bohemund’s forces 5 . Afterwards Alexios
sent Roger to Bohemund as a hostage, along with Marinos of Naples,
Adralestos and Constantine Euphorbenos 6 . His name appears among the
signatories of the peace treaty of September, 1108 7 . At some point in his
career he received the title of sebastos. For upon his death Kallikles composed
an epitaph entitled ες τν τάν Ργερίυ τ σεαστ 8 . The poet
alludes to Roger’s earlier exploits in Italy 9 and intimates that Roger participated
in expeditions against the Pechenegs and Turks («the Celts and
the Istrian Scyths and the sons of the Persians shout my brave deeds») 10 .
4 ALBERT OF AIX, II, IX (p. 305). The crusaders were proceeding from Adrianople
to the capital and on the way were robbing Byzantine citizens and destroying
property.
5 Alex., XIII, 4, 4 (p. 395).
6 Alex., XIII, 9, 1 (pp. 407-408).
7 Alex., XIII, 12, 28, 42-43 (p. 423).
8 NICOLA CALLICLE, Carmi. Testo critico, introduzione, traduzione, commentario e
lessico, ed. R. ROMANO, Naples 1980 (Byzantina et neohellenica neapolitana, Collana
di Studi e Testi diretta da Antonio Garzya), no. 19 (pp. 93-95). Specification of his
rank is repeated in line 34 (p. 94) where there is mention of enrollment in the ranks
of the sebastoi (τ τν σεαστν νι πρσεγράην).
9 CALLICLE, Carmi cit., lines 23-29 (p. 94).
10 CALLICLE, Carmi cit., lines 37-39 (p. 94): κα τς µς ντεθεν νδραγαθίας /
Κελτ σιν κα παρίστριι Σκθαι / κα τέκνα Περσν...